Capdesk raises £1.5m to aid in employee share plans
UK-based equity management platform Capdesk has raised £1.5 million from London-based VC fund Fuel Ventures and angels to digitise and provide liquidity to the employee shares in unlisted European companies.
“Private companies are not equipped to handle employee share plans with hundreds of participants”
Capdesk was founded by Christian Gabriel and Casper Arboll as a response to a new trend of fast-growing companies staying private, and increasingly using employee shares to compensate staff.
Since its launch in 2015, the company has attracted thousands of users in the UK and abroad, including Nutmeg, Secret Escapes and Tab Media.
“Private companies are not equipped to handle employee share plans with hundreds of participants – the administrative burden is simply enormous,” says Christian Gabriel, CEO of Capdesk.
Gabriel adds: “More importantly though, these employee shares are worthless without a liquid market. Capdesk is a platform which helps companies manage option plans and liquidity events, empoweringcompanies to share ownership with employees.”
Fuel Ventures is a London-based venture capital firm that specialises in providing seed funding to early stage technology companies. It invests in founders who have the ambition to go global.
